Bruce Flamenbaum
July 2024 - Abbey, Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert
About the Image(s)
Shot with a Canon 5d MKIII with a 50mm f1.4 at 1/200 sec at f14, ISO 200, at Saint-Guilhem-le-Desert, France.
This isolated medieval village is located on the Chemin de Saint-Jacques (Way of St. James) pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostella, Spain. The Abbey dates back to 804. To arrive at the village, until a newer bridge was constructed travelers might have had to cross the nearby Le Pont du Diable (Devil’s Bridge), an 11th century UNESCO World Heritage Site.
This round’s discussion is now closed!
4 comments posted
Hi Bruce,
I love the contrast in your image.
In an architectural image, it would be best to maintain the verticality of the building even though it appears you had to slightly tilt your camera upwards which results in the impression that the building is slightly tilting backwards. You might also have had the chance to use a wider aperture focused on the building itself. That would have resulted in a more purposeful "out of focus" plant in the foreground, giving more prominence to the building itself. Posted: 07/10/2024 15:54:19
I love the contrast in your image.
In an architectural image, it would be best to maintain the verticality of the building even though it appears you had to slightly tilt your camera upwards which results in the impression that the building is slightly tilting backwards. You might also have had the chance to use a wider aperture focused on the building itself. That would have resulted in a more purposeful "out of focus" plant in the foreground, giving more prominence to the building itself. Posted: 07/10/2024 15:54:19
Hi Bruce. I love the building that you've found here; there is a rustic texture to the walls that you can almost feel looking at your image. As Rick points out you've used contrast well to enhance the details in the building.
For me you are trying to include a whole lot compositionally - stuff that isn't central to the story which is all about the building. In particular the flowers in front suffer from being part in and part out of focus. There is also a lot of sky, and clouds which are just there enough to be distracting (particularly on the top edge of the image) vs. providing a contrast with the building texture which perhaps would have been possible with more clouds.
I perhaps would try cropping in a little tighter to reduce some of the distraction. There is also a new trick you could employ in Lightroom, namely it can "guess" depth in the image and artificially reduce depth of focus (e.g., lens blur). You could use that to bring the flowers in front out of focus so they don't compete. I tried that to demonstrate in the image below. I also tried to fix the perspective (building leaning) that Rick talked about - again LR has a quick option for this.
The other thing you might think about is trying the image in B&W. For a middle of day image like this sometimes that is very effective.
Again, I complement you on recognizing the potential in the abbey as a subject. Just a case of how to take full advantage of what the wonderful building offers.
Posted: 07/16/2024 00:06:49
For me you are trying to include a whole lot compositionally - stuff that isn't central to the story which is all about the building. In particular the flowers in front suffer from being part in and part out of focus. There is also a lot of sky, and clouds which are just there enough to be distracting (particularly on the top edge of the image) vs. providing a contrast with the building texture which perhaps would have been possible with more clouds.
I perhaps would try cropping in a little tighter to reduce some of the distraction. There is also a new trick you could employ in Lightroom, namely it can "guess" depth in the image and artificially reduce depth of focus (e.g., lens blur). You could use that to bring the flowers in front out of focus so they don't compete. I tried that to demonstrate in the image below. I also tried to fix the perspective (building leaning) that Rick talked about - again LR has a quick option for this.
The other thing you might think about is trying the image in B&W. For a middle of day image like this sometimes that is very effective.
Again, I complement you on recognizing the potential in the abbey as a subject. Just a case of how to take full advantage of what the wonderful building offers.
Posted: 07/16/2024 00:06:49
(Groups 15 & 95)
Hi Bruce, very nice abbey. I also like the contrast in your image. I agree with Robert that the flowers/plants are a bit of a distraction - blurring them helps. One option is cropping as Robert says, the other is to open up the image and place the abbey more within its surroundings allowing a bit more space. Posted: 07/23/2024 19:39:34
Thank you for your comments. But, I must disagree with you. If I merely wanted to show the design of the building, I agree the flowers are unnecessary. However, my intention was to show that the place was a place of peace and refuge for the pilgrims who traversed the route to Santiago de Compostella, Spain. In 800 and later, the route was a place of danger. The Abbey offered safety to the travelers. If I was to just show the building alone without a natural beauty, softness or the serenity of flowers, I believe it would convey a different story to viewer. I attach a photo of the building alone, its stark nature, conveys a different nature. Posted: 07/27/2024 17:21:54